The best laid plans of mice and men…

Entries Tagged as 'Cricket Wireless'

In this day when it seems that most cellular communication companies are trying to bend you over and extort the maximum amount of money possible with complicated plans that likely don’t match your usage habits, there are two independent carries that just might be coming to help you.

MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless both offer reasonable cost flat rate, unlimited, voice – message – data plans. Both carries allow you to bring existing (compatible) CDMA handsets to their network (you can pay them to unlock the phone, or you can generally do it yourself).

The catch?

Both companies have limited service areas at the moment, but both are actively expanding.

You really have to look over their plans to understand what’s offered. Both have roaming capabilities, but the cost structure is quite different (and if you travel frequently outside their service areas you might find services from another carrier are less expensive). Both also have data services; MetroPCS never jumped on the 3G data bandwagon (they really never sold devices targeted at that market), but has started an aggressive 4G rollout in major metropolitan areas; Cricket Wireless does have 3G data services (no roaming data services currently available) but have no firm plans to move to 4G until equipment prices are more competitive.

Aside from MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless you might also look into MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operator — basically they purchase and resell bandwidth from one or more wireless carriers). Operators like Virgin Mobile (reselling Sprint in the US) or Straight Talk (reselling Verizon in the US) along with a number of smaller and regional MVNOs might fit your needs better. Most of those (except the GSM carriers) don’t accommodate handsets they don’t sell you, but that’s an every changing landscape.